“Keep Believing Pakistan”: Michael Vaughan Trolls Babar Azam And Co. Over Their Semi-Final Hopes | Cricket News

Pakistan will probably be needing a miracle to make it to the semi-finals of Cricket World Cup 2023 once they face a charged-up England at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Saturday. New Zealand’s web run-rate boosting 5 wicket-win over Sri Lanka on Thursday has nearly shattered Pakistan’s semifinal hopes. The 1992 champions now need to beat England by an unbelievable margin to make it to the knockout spherical. New Zealand’s NRR is +0.743 whereas Pakistan’s is +0.036, and for the Babar Azam-led facet to eclipse the previous to qualify because the fourth facet, it has to win by round 287 runs batting first. While chasing, Pakistan must win with 284 balls to spare. That is an impractical activity.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan took a dig at Babar Azam and firm after sharing a listing of permutations and mixtures that Pakistan will probably be needing to make their practically unimaginable semi-final qualification a actuality.

“Keep believing Pakistan .. You never know ..,” wrote Vaughan in his submit on X, previously often known as Twitter.

Keep believing Pakistan .. You by no means know .. #CWC2023 pic.twitter.com/E9AtS2n0tA

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) November 10, 2023

For defending champions England, the World Cup title defence dream could have been over for fairly a someday now however the Jos Buttler-led facet will intention to complete inside top-8 to make the reduce for the 2025 Champions Trophy.

As issues stand, it is a four-way race with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands additionally within the combine with England.

Their 160-run win over the Netherlands within the final match has given the down-and-out England the much-needed late cost as they’ve climbed as much as the seventh spot and face the best equation among the many 4 groups.

A win towards Pakistan ought to seal the spot, contemplating that each Bangladesh and the Netherlands face powerful opponents in Australia and India respectively, and now have inferior NRRs than England.

(With PTI Inputs)